I’m surprised that no mention of Burkhard Heim and his theories have been made on the show. As Heim died in January 14, 2001 Sheldon could have met him in Germany. The Heim’s work was written in German and obtusely esoteric. He was both a brilliant if profoundly disabled eccentric and an ardent German nationalist. His mathematical proofs involve the use of selector calculus and are so complex that few claim to have mastered them yet his claimed predictions for particle masses compared with experimental masses are remarkably accurate. I can see Sheldon taking on Heim’s theories to the point of obsession. Picture the comic effect of Sheldon wandering around muttering in German… shades of Dr. Strangelove indeed. All the other characters could make jokes about him going round the bend. The episode might endwith some bit of inspired weirdness ala the glowing goldfish to suggest that Sheldon might have been on to something after all.